John Van Ness Yates

Son of an prominent attorney and jurist, he grew up in his father's upper State Street. He also became a lawyer after clerking in the Court
Street office of John V. Henry.

Losing his pre-eminent father before he reached his twenty-second birthday,
John continued to live with his mother at 110 State Street. After her
death in 1818, he remained in the house with his wife and children until
his death.

Gorham A. Worth later characterized him
as "a man of talents, both natural and acquired. He was equal to the
duties of any station, and to the difficulties of any task. He was a
wit, a poet, a belles-lettres scholar, and a boon companion, whose joke
was ever ready, and whose laugh was contagious. He wanted nothing but
industry and self-respect, [sic] to have made him eminent as a lawyer.
His associations were beneath him, not only in point of talent, but
in character; yet they affected his interests rather than his principles.
He possessed the readiest apprehension and the most retentive memory,
of any man I ever knew. All that he had ever read, and he had read a
great deal, was at his fingers ends. He was often consulted by the younger
members of the bar, while walking in the streets; and, without a moment's
hesitation, would take out his pencil and write down what was the law
in the case, and where it was to be found - volume, chapter and verse.
From these frequent street consultations, he was called The Walking
LIbrary." Printed in Worth's Random
Recollections of Albany pp. 65-66.